Larisa Mondrus

Larisa Mondrus is a Soviet pop star of the late 60s - early 70s. Many people remember the popular song "Blue Flax" performed by her. The singer's first success was that at a young age she ended up in the famous Riga Variety Orchestra.

The singer's birthday is November 15, 1943, the place of birth is Dzhambul, the city of the Kazakh SSR, where the newborn's family was evacuated. The girl's parents were Israel (Igor) Iosifovich Mondrus and Lydia Grigorievna Zapletina.

After the war, the family returned to Latvia. In Riga, Larisa, not being Latvian by nationality, went to a Latvian kindergarten due to the lack of places in the Russian-speaking one. But Mondrus graduated from Russian school. The girl showed a penchant for languages, so she mastered Polish, Italian, English and French during her school years.

After graduating from high school, the girl enters the Riga Music College. In 1962 Larisa took part in the competition, wins it and starts working in the orchestra. The talented performer was immediately noticed by the audience. Two years later, the singer leaves for Moscow. From the moment of moving to the capital of the USSR, a new creative period begins in her biography.

The singer is invited to the famous orchestras of Oleg Lundstrem and Eddie Rosner. Mondrus prefers Eddie Ignatievich, who headed one of the most famous collectives in the Union. The new work has become a bridge for the artist, integrating her into the metropolitan environment.

The Riga stage of that time was oriented towards the West and towards the musical genre of symphonic jazz. Moscow did not object to this liberty. It was believed that the bourgeois vestiges taking place in the Baltic countries, the lack of ideology of their music, will eventually become obsolete.

The creative motto of the Latvian artist was formulated simply: "Nothing Soviet!" This was the reason for her latent confrontation with the authorities. "Is it really for me alone" was her first hit. The song was intended for a movie, but in it it was performed by the then popular Maya Kristalinskaya, the director gave her preference.

Larisa Mondrus gained fame on a union scale thanks to her performances on Central TV. At the "New Year's Blue Light" in 1964, the singer won the love of the public, conquering her with "Moonlight" by Eddie Rosner. She began to be invited to other television programs. In the next "Blue Light" she performed with Muslim Magomayev.

Their first joint video was "Birds Talk". A beautiful duet with a “declaration of love”, which has not yet been shown on our television screens, made an incredible sensation. The singer became popular not thanks to those in power, but in spite of. Rosconcert claimed that there were no applications for Mondrus, but she was often invited to concerts in the countries of the socialist community.

In the same years, films became popular, where Larisa Mondrus appears on the screen. First of all, it is the comedy "Give a Book of Complaints", in which the artist gets the episodic role of the singer in the restaurant "Dandelion". In the film In the First Hour, she portrays a participant in the Blue Light. Together with Muslim Magomayev, a charming girl appears in the musical film "Tales of the Russian Forest". In the popular comedy "Gentlemen of Fortune" Larisa performs the hit "Wake up and Sing".

Larisa Mondrus is rightfully considered the first performer of songs by the Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls. Among the hits of the musician in the singer's repertoire is the hit “A Million Scarlet Roses” (1970), which was later sung by Aya Kukule and Alla Pugacheva.

She sang about the understandable feelings of ordinary people, her songs were very popular with the audience. Officials from the Ministry of Culture strongly recommended using “civic themes” in the repertoire, diluting it with compositions of patriotic content. Sometimes the girl would compromise. The fate of the singer and her husband depended on her civil position.

Larisa Mondrus does not stop there, tries herself in the Moscow Music Hall, with the troupe of which she travels to the European countries of the Soviet camp. In 1968 the girl got a job as an artist of the Mosconcert. Larisa worked at this place until 1972. But for the last two years, the artist has become restricted to travel abroad, despite applications for her performances from abroad.

There were times when, without any reason or under a ridiculous pretext, she was removed from a solo concert. Larisa's height and weight allowed the girl to wear bold outfits. Once the artist was accused of coming out to sing in a mini dress. The conflict over a short skirt occurred at Larisa Mondrus after the recording of the Blue Light in 1966, where the artist appeared in the company of Soviet heroes - cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, Alexei Leonov, Pavel Belyaev.

The next time she was expelled from the anniversary program for "maxi" with elongated sleeves, which seemed to someone from the management like "rags". The leadership of the State Concert did not like the innovation that the singer introduced into everyday life: during the performance of the song, she did not hesitate to dance, which was not encouraged at that time.

Mondrus was aware of the love of the people, but at the same time she resisted the aesthetics popularized on the Soviet stage. And this resistance in her continued to grow. The story that happened at the art council, when her giant disk was “hacked”, was the last straw. One of the composers did not like the “pessimism” of Larisa's songs.

This incident and those that followed it forced her to make a decision that radically changed her fate. After the change in the leadership of the State Committee on Radio and Television in 1971, when Sergey Lapin became the head, she and Vadim Mulerman were deprived of television broadcasts. Songs "Good hour", "Snowflake", "A deer ran through the city" and others continue to sound and delight fans of her talent.

Larisa Mondrus and her husband decide to go abroad. In March 1973, they leave the USSR without noise or delay. They, as well as other musicians who find themselves abroad, are faced with the question of employment in their specialty.

The talented singer was able to start from scratch and achieve what she could not even think of in the USSR. Her family settled in a suburb of Munich - in Grunwald.

Larisa begins to appear on TV in the Ivan Rebrov show, signs a contract with Polydor Records. In 1974 her album Die Herzen singen was released in German.

In Germany, the singer's discography has been replenished with ten "giant albums". Mondrus sings in five different languages. By 1977, the artist has gained incredible popularity in Europe. Her name, along with the names of Demis Roussos, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and other celebrities, is included in the directory of popular artists.

The singer's personal life was happy. Larisa married the composer Egil Schwartz in 1964. Both future spouses worked in the Riga Orchestra. The head of the ensemble invited Egil to the post of conductor, luring him with a promise to introduce him to a pretty singer. And later, Larissa said that Schwartz was rooting for her during one music competition. Together, the young people made a beautiful couple.

The husband shared the fate of Larisa abroad. Together they have been for over forty years, represent an example of enduring love and affection for each other. In 1982, the desired child was born in the family.

After that, the singer left the stage, became the owner of a store and sells shoes. The son of Lauren Schwartz had the makings of a musician, he was educated in a pianist school, but ultimately preferred science. Now he is head of the department at the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Munich. He has wife Claudia, a child psychologist, and two twin children who were born in 2015. Laura and Emil became the desired grandchildren for Larisa Mondrus.

For the first time after leaving, the singer visited Russia with her husband in 2001. In 2005 she performed at the New Wave festival in Jurmala.

A documentary film “Save Yourself. Larisa Mondrus ”, based on her memoirs and interviews. The picture was released in 2009. Another documentary film with the participation of Larisa Mondrus is “Lapin's List. Forbidden Stage ”- was created in 2013. There are different photos on the Web in which Larisa Mondrus appears in her youth and at the present time.

The Yekaterinburg Musical Comedy Theater created a performance dedicated to the work of the singer and her two colleagues - Nina Brodskaya and Aida Vedishcheva, who also preferred life in the West to Soviet realities. For the theatrical performance, a lyric clip was created, which included footage of recordings of the 60s with performances by artists.

In 2017, the songs “Is it really for me alone” and “Maybe not, maybe yes” were released by Larisa Mondrus, which were included in the collection “Golden Collection”.

1963 - "For those who are waiting" 1965 - "White nights" 1966 - "Spring drops" 1968 - "The one that I dream" 1970 - "Blue flax" 1972 - "Leaf fall"

Larisa Mondrus ' s estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Larisa Mondrus in 2020 ?

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2021

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.5M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $854.5K - $1.1M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2020

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.2M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $646.2K - $1.3M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2019

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.1M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $956.8K - $1.1M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2018

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.5M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $547.5K - $1.7M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2017

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $820.1K - $1.5M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2016

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.8M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $770.7K - $1.6M.

Larisa Mondrus Net Worth 2015

Larisa Mondrus 's revenue is $1.4M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Larisa Mondrus and could vary in the range between $506.8K - $1.7M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Larisa Mondrus. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Larisa Mondrus makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Larisa Mondrus's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.